The provincial capital of Sinop enjoys a charming position on the central section of the Boztepe peninsula. It is both the most northerly point on the Turkish Black Sea coast and also the best protected harbor.It is now a place of little consequence compared with its importance in antiquity when it was a busy commercial city situated at the northern end of important caravan routes from Cappadocia and the lands of the Euphrates.

Sinop was an important Black Sea center in the 8th century B.C. when it was a Greek colony. In 413 B.C. the Cynic philosopher Diogenes (the one who lived in a tub and not to be confused with Diogenes of Apollonia) was born here. Sinop has been a port for 1000 years and takes its name from the Amazon queen Sinope. Nowadays, however, communications with the Anatolian Plateau are rendered difficult by the intervening barrier of the West Pontic Mountains. The sandy beaches, with hotels and small airport, to the west of the town are well known.